


Golden Nights

by undermounts



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Book, just straight up self indulgent fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-14
Updated: 2019-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:54:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23518786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/undermounts/pseuds/undermounts
Summary: Julian and Cassandra go out for another night on the town
Relationships: Apprentice/Julian Devorak, Julian Devorak/Original Female Character(s)
Kudos: 5





	Golden Nights

They were golden.

Two figures sat alone in a wooden booth in a secluded back corner of the Rowdy Raven, faces flushed with excitement and maybe a little something extra as they huddled together, voices low, as if sharing a secret. The pair had arrived hours ago with spectacular bravado and sly smiles. Now, they were well into their—well, truth be told, they had no idea what round they were on, but it was enough reduce them to giggles and sweet tokens of affection. 

“Brilliant,” Julian noted with a gleam in his eye, one arm on the table wrapped around his drained pint and the other draped around his companion’s shoulders. “You’re absolutely brilliant, Cassandra.”

Grimacing, Cassandra downed the rest of the golden liquor and set down her glass, wiping white foam from her upper lip. “These are disgusting.”

Julian barked with laughter, face splitting into a devilish grin. “Aren’t they? Another round, shall we?”

_ “ _ **_HIC!_ ** _ ” _

“Perhaps not,” Julian decided, sweeping the mugs to the other side of the table in a single grand gesture. He turned back to Cassandra, taking her hand and stooping slightly to kiss the back of it. “Water, my dear?"

“I’m fine, Ilya,” Cassandra giggled, slipping her hand from his to push his hair out of his eyes and cup his cheek, unaware of the red blush that had crept up to his ears.

Julian leaned into her touch, eye fluttering shut as he turned to press his lips to the inside of her wrist. “I do love it when you say my name.”

A sly smile tugged at the corners of Cassandra’s mouth at his admission and she ducked her head, leaning in to graze her lips along the edge of his jaw, up to his ear. “Ilya.”

His hand gripped her thigh and he looked up at her through fluttering lashes, a sliver of desperate silver. “Cassandra…”

Julian tilted his head, knocking it against the back of the booth as the curve of his lips sought hers. Cassandra felt her breath catch in her chest at the inviting sight before her. Ilya was always pretty; pretty in forbidden gardens full of poisonous flowers, pretty in silver moonlight with wander under their feet, pretty in a mask with his throat bared and mottled with purple, and pretty now, basked in the golden lantern light of the Rowdy Raven.

Without even thinking, she found herself leaning in. How could she possibly resist…

_ “ _ **_HIC!_ ** _ ” _

Startled by the sound, Cassandra sat up, spine rigid as she clamped a her hand over her mouth. Julian, on the other hand, looked up at her, silver eye wide, before promptly startling the rest of the bar crowd with his loud laughter, a staccato base line. 

“Oh, laugh it— _ hic! _ — up, Julian,” Cassandra huffed, crossing her arms even though the smile that threatened to corrupt her scowl gave her away.

“I will,” he chuckled, splaying his fingertips out on the wooden table as he stood, swaying slightly. “Say, Cassandra, do you dance?”

“I’m not exactly very good at it,” Cassandra said slowly, eyeing him as he stepped out of the booth and extended a hand out to her. 

“Fantastic! Me neither,” Julian grinned as she slipped her hand into his and he tugged her to her feet. “But I’ve been told that even the worst dancers become experts with a little liquor in their system. And we have a lot of that.” He led Cassandra to a clearing in the Raven and shouted to the quartet to play something good. Almost immediately, the room was filled with a lively tempo, music, and lilting voices.

“I’m not so sure about that,” Cassandra shouted over the din, although she let him lead her in a dance anyway, twisting, spinning, and laughing all around the pub.

At some point, they had gotten others to join in as well and the entire room had become filled to the brim with joy and laughter. At some point, Julian had ended up on top of a table, his clumsy footwork rattling the glasses and silverware. At some point, Cassandra had joined him and they stumbled across the table top together, cheeks flushed and breathless, hands intertwined and eyes full of light.

Everything around them was golden, enveloped in a shimmering circle of warmth and happiness that had nothing to do with the heating lanterns. It was a honeyed haze, sweet and timeless, moment that seemed to stay suspended in time like the perfect memory captured in the perfect picture. It was euphoria in its purest form.

Even after their feet gave out and they stumbled out of the Rowdy Raven into the cool night, the echoes of laughter and music lingering in their ears as they meandered through the narrow streets of Vesuvia, the memory of Raven still imprinted on the backs of their eyelids. Unintentionally, the air positively shimmered with Cassandra’s magic and her heightened feelings, surrounding them like summer breeze and further prolonging their tender bliss.

Julian’s hand was warm in hers, their fingers linking and unlinking as they continued to dance across the cobblestone, moving together and moving apart like the ebb and flow of the tide to a siren song only they could hear. In the gas lamps’ light, Julian glowed like liquid gold, full of more life and color than Cassandra had ever seen in him before. She was willing to bet she looked the same. 

Despite having a large portion of her life wiped from her memory, she cannot imagine a time when she had felt like this—so wonderfully alive and unabashedly  _ happy _ . 

Suddenly, Julian stopped and leaned against the wall of a shop that has long since closed for the night. Tugging gently on her fingertips, he pulled Cassandra into him, encircling her in his arms. His eye roamed across her face, slow and, although a little unfocused with drink, full of wonder and affection.

“What are you thinking about?”

His question drew Cassandra out of her thoughts and the Raven’s haze, rooting her into the delicious reality that was Julian and the solid feeling of him under her palms, alive and well. He was smiling softly at her, the same smile that had brought excitement and adventure into her life. 

“Tonight,” she answered, hands splayed out across the broad expanse of his chest to feel his heartbeat, steady, if not a little quick, underneath. “You. Us.”

“Ah, my favorite things…” Julian chuckled leaning his forehead against hers. “What of it?”

“Nothing,” Cassandra shrugged, unable to contain her smile as she looked up at him through her lashes. “Just...I’m so happy, Ilya. So very happy.”

He drew back, eye wide and cheeks even rosier than before. “Happy?”

“Yes. Are you?”

Julian blinked at her, silent for a second. Then, without warning, he surged forward, pressing his lips to hers in a tender kiss, more gentle and sweet than any they had ever shared before. “Cassandra, my dear… I’ve never been happier than I am every second I spend with you. Each is more spectacular than the last.”

Cassandra grinned, smile so bright and blinding, Julian couldn’t help but return it. They are absolute fools, she realized, then. Their world was burning around them and their time was running short, but life had never felt more worth living. They were fools indeed, as they stood their in their golden light, smiling and whispering sweet confessions between kisses as their feet ached and their limbs felt heavy from liquor and exhaustion. But damned if they weren’t the happiest fools alive. 

She was okay with that. 


End file.
